AirBNB Search Map Showing Burglars Exactly Where Your Home - AriBNB Does Not Care! BEWARE

[Alan138]

That discussion title sounds outrageous but it is actually true! AirBNB is showing burglars exactly where our homes are without ever having to do the booking and in our listing photos we are showing burglars all the nice things in our homes to steal.

Go to AirBNB and search for a home or private room. DO NOT click to select a listing. On the right side click "Show Map" to turn on the map display. Now zoom in and zoom in and zoom in on the map .. until you see street names. Then slide the map around until you see a dollar sign icon for a listing.

The dollar sign marker for YOUR house is right on the exact street name where you live. Now AirBNB will tell you that it is not right on your house. But guess what? It is very close to your house and all a burglar has to do is go to that spot on that street and look for a house that matches the photo of the front of your house. And if you do not include a photo of the front of your house all they have to do is go and watch for someone coming out of the house that looks like the photo of the host. And we all have host profile photos that are close up head and shoulder photos that very clearly show what we look like. Burglars are of course stupid to be criminals but make no mistake they are crafty and smart enough to figure out what became obvious to me seeing the search map function.

Now go to Google search and type in "Burglars use AirBNB to target homes" and you will see about 200,000+ search results.

I have shown this dangerous and irresponsible flaw in the AirBNB search map system to managers at AirBNB no less than 10 times over the last year and they have not lifted one finger to fix it to protect us from being robbed. I even gave they the perfect and simply solution to fix it. Show a red shaded circle on the map that represents a certain number of mile radius. As you zoom in and out on the map it tells you the mile radius currently represented. Then below the map in rows and columns show all of the dollar sign icons that can be clicked to view homes within the represented mile radius on the map.

SO PROTECT YOURSELVES FROM AIRBNB - They obviously do not care one bit if we get robbed. AirBNB is NEVER GOING TO GET IT and never going to change their map function .. I have given up. Maybe if a thousand hosts comment on this discussion demanding they fix it, that might work. I doubt it though but maybe if 10,000 hosts comment on this discussion SCREAMING at them? If you are reading this and care please comment.

TO PROTECT YOURSELF

1) If you have a photo of the front of your house, remove it immediately.

2) Removing your profile photo or replacing it with one that is hard to tell what you look like may not be something that will prove heloful to your booking rate.

The only 100% safe solution is to delete your listing and rebuild a new listing using an address that is not your actual house address. Use an address that is several blocks away and in an obviously different neighborhood when looking at the street map for your area. Use a street address that is not actually a house address that exists. You can use Zillow to see what the house numbers are on a street and then use a street number between the numbers that do exist. This is so that you do not bother another resident with people knocking on their door in the rare event that a booked guest does not follow your instructions you provide with the correct house address.

Doing this of course will requre that you send a message to every guest that completes a booking to give them the correct house address. It is actually easy to do and has just become a simple step I now do. I just copy the message I sent to the last guest and send it to the new booked guest.

Below is exactly what I write to each guest after they book if you want to adopt the text for your own use. I felt it was important to explain to a guest the reason the address is different so that they are not concerned but actually relieved knowing that they do not have to worry about the possiblilty of a burglar breaking in while they are staying at the home. I tried several types of explanations and the one below that I now use produces 100% "no problem" responses from guests.

----

Hi John,

Please reply to confirm you got this message with the correct house address I am providing below in this message.

Please ignore the address to Airbnb gives you. It is a few blocks over in the same neighborhood. Burglars use the Airbnb search results map to find homes to rob and so far Airbnb has refused to fix it so we had to use a different address on our listing to protect ourselves.

The correct House address is XXX Street Name, City, State, Zip. The house address numbers are on a lighted sign above the garage doors on the right side

.... And then whatever else you want to say to welcome them to your home .....

[Ana1136]

@Alan138 If I book a place to stay on Airbnb and after the payment is finished the host tells me to ignore the adress and come to a different place i am contacting Airbnb at that exact moment and canceling the reservation. And I am pretty sure that is against Airbnb policy. What about the other adress you are using? I guess someone lives there, would you be ok with someone using your adress just to falsely advertise their property?

[Alan138]

@Ana1136Thanks for joining in on the topic!

The reaction from every single one of my guests has been the exact opposite. Most just say thanks and it is no big deal. But I have actually had several thank me for being especially diligent to ensure they are not being exposed to any unneccessary risk. Many guests are already a bit uncomfortable going to stay at a complete strangers home. Many have searched the interent before using AirBNB and have seen the many many search results talking about AirBNB and buglaries. So the response has been the exact opposite of how you would react if you were the guest that booked. But there are always exceptions and surely I will encounter a guest someday that becomes concerned instead of relieved.

As far as policy .. I suppose when AirBNB stops violating their published policy of only showing the location of our homes to guests that have completed a booking ... I will join them.

As far as using someone else address .. If you read my advise carefully, you use an address that does not actually exist.

As far as false advertising ... Acording to AirBNB policy the locaiton of the home is NOT suppose to be disclosed prior to booking. The location on the map of my home is like 1/2 mile away and the photos and everythnig else is the exact home they are renting. I suppose the 1% or less that were intentionally using the map to locate a place to stay so they could step out of the house and walk across the street to go to the 1 place they are coming to town to visit and they do not want to have to rent a car to walk 1/2 mile ... THAT rare guest might be disappointed, I agree.

This is FASCINATING that no one seems to care that the location of our homes is unneccesarily being shown to everyone booked or not, buglars included, and in voilation of AirBNB very own promise to us of not disclosing it until someone books. AND AirBNB homes are definetly being targeted and robbed by burglars with thousands of internet search results talking about that very danger.

And so far everyone responding to this discussion is more interested in all sorts of other things rather than doing everything we can to protect ourselves, our property and our guests from the danger of a home invasion by burglars that ARE using AirBNB to target homes to rob ... Absolutely Fascinating!!

We should all be screaming at AirBNB to fix the search results map to stop exposing all of us to a completely unnessary risk.

I have posted this discussion first and foremost to alert all hosts who have not yet realized that the location of their home IS being disclosed prior to booking so that those that do not want to be exposed to the unnessary risk of a home invasion can take responsible steps of not showing a photo of the front of their home and maybe only show photos of the bedroom and bathroom instead of photos of the entire interior of the home or take even more protective steps of using an address close by that does not actually exist so the map is not identifying their locsaiton to everyone and providing the correct .

Secondly I posted it on the outside chance that AirBNB does care about keeping their promise to us of only disclosing the locaiton of our homes to completed bookings, they see  this discussion, they finally realize they are not keeping that promise and they finally revise the search map to stop exposing us to a completely unnessary risk.

I thank each and everyone one of you for your time to contribute to this discussion. There is not much more for me to contribute so I am going to step off of the discussion and will no longer be responding to replies to address the good and interesting contributions all of you have posting in reply.

[Martin27]

Hello @Alan138,

regarding your

"And so far everyone responding to this discussion is more interested in all sorts of other things rather than doing everything we can to protect ourselves, our property and our guests from the danger of a home invasion by burglars that ARE using AirBNB to target homes to rob ... Absolutely Fascinating!!"

I can only say: Maybe it is just no issue at all. The address of my place is not shown at all. You are kindly invited to use my profile photo to identify me in front of my house ... Good luck. 🙂

If I were you I would quit Airbnb immediately and hope that the burglar community did not make a screenshot of my listing yet ...

However, you made my day and thanks for sharing your experiences so far.

Best

Martin

[Alan138]

@Martin27  Like I said it is quite fascinating th ereplies people leave on this topic. You actualy think the thousands of AirBNB hosts being robbed ebery year is a funny topic?

[Ana1136]

@Alan138 Thousands of people get robbed no matter if they are on Airbnb or not. If someone wants to rob you he can make a booking and do it and you will be personally giving him the exact adress. Having a home security sistem, which i suppose you already have, is a must. Also a home insurance and I would suggest having valuable items removed from the spaces guests can use. 

[Martin27]

@Alan138

Getting robbed is never funny. That is not the point and you are losing your track.

You tell it is a big issue. Ok, that is your opinion and till now you gave no evidence at all.

I say it is not an issue, because it is not working as described by you. Please give me a proof that your approach is working by telling me the address of my place offered here on Airbnb - street name would be fine, house number would be excellent.  Feel free to post it in the forum. If you are correct you or one of your friends will get a stay for free (a weekend) in my place as a reward.  

If you are not telling my address here, that is the proof that your posting here is a hoax and "I wont feed the troll any longer".  

by the way: You allow strangers (booking via Airbnb) to enter your place. How do you avoid that they are making copies of your keys that they can return and enter again anytime in future? You might be accused as a rapist or thief then ....

Please try to keep the track, give a proof now and it would be a valueable contribute to the community.  If you are successful I will bring this topic to German host community too.

Good luck,

Martin

[Alan138]

You place is one of 5 houses in the first block of Vela Bromaca

[Martin27]

Hi @Alan138,

who did you respond to? I am still waiting for your guess about the location of my place. 🙂

Best

Martin

[Ana1136]

@Martin27 I believe he is talking about your house 🙂 And 1 of 5 is not good enough, what if it is an apartment in one of 5 buildings, they will not enter hundreds of apartments just to find one Airbnb listing. There are smarter ways for them to find places to rob instead for searching Airbnb maps and trying to guess the location.

[Martin27]

Dear @Ana1136,

there is no street/place/whatever called "Vela Bromaca" in Berlin at all. 🙂

Must be located in another country - maybe Croatia or Macedonia.

Best

Martin

[Ana1136]

@Martin27 It is not in Macedonia for sure, and I googled and can't find it in Croatia either. I guess it doesn't work that well 🙂

[Alan138]

@Ana1136 My best guess is that your place is either 2 Jane Sandanski or 3 Sandanski but again apartments are much harder to pinpoint than single family homes.

Point is AirBNB is giving anyone on the internet the ability to pinpoint our homes from their stupid search results map design (and our listing photos) yet they assure us that the location of our home will only be given after someone completes a booking.

I get it, you guys are not very concened about the topic which is of course fine but countless others like me would be really pissed off if they live in a single family home and discovered how easy it is to pinpoint their home from the stupid search results map.

[Alan138]

@Martin27 That was the location of a listing on your "wish list"

Your berlin place looks like the center apartment building of what looks like three groups of buildings on the Luderitzstrabe side of the block. If a burglar went out to where you apartment is located snopping around trying to pinpoint your place they likely will not be able to do so. The only possibility is if your patio is a first floor patio where they can see and match up the patio chair set with your photos or see in the wiindows to match your place with your listing photos. 

Single family homes which are seperate buildings is real easy to pinpoint the exact location form the search map, especially if the host is showing any pictures of the outside of the house and even then if the burglar was patient they coudl just wait for someone coming out of the house that looks like the host photo.

[Alan138]

@Martin27@Ana1136 Yes Ana  and from the exterior photos of his place anyone going out to his street woudl easily be able to identify which house is his listing.

BUT EVERYONE is missing the point. AirBNB promises and tells us that the address of our homes will only be given to people who have completed a booking.  Why does AirBNB tell us that? Because people do not want anyone on the internet knowing where they live (especially burglars) But they ARE giving anyone with a brain in their head the ability to find our homes with the way the search results map works.

Granted some hosts don't care because they either do not live in the home or just don't have anything in the home worth stealing. But a lot of us hosts do care and do have expensive things in their homes.

SO IF YOU ARE A HOST THAT CARES - Do not use a photos of the front of your house or other exterior photos, only show interior photos of the room and bathroom instead of photos of other areas of you home that might show nice things to worth stealing or use a different address on your listing. And tell AirBNB they are not keeping their promise to us to not give our the locaiton of our home prior to booking with the way the search map currently works.

Geez

[Martin27]

@Alan0

From my point of view you are just a kind of drama queen or similar.

why?

(1) quote from title of your thread: "Map Showing Burglars Exactly Where Your Home"

(2) quote from your last posting here "from the exterior photos of his place anyone going out to his street woudl easily be able to identify which house is his listing"

conclusion:

If your title is true and Airbnb is showing exactly where the house is, you do NOT need any exterior photo.

If YOU (Alan) do not have any exterior photo YOU are just not able to find the place at all.

You (Alan) are even not able to identify the street my apartment is in. You tried maybe and you could not make it.

To me all your drama thing here is a kind of stupid as you seem to be convinced that any burglar is able to find a place, which you cant find ...  Maybe you are true, dont know.

However you should delete the exterior pictures of your house to show that you believe in your own words about the burglars.

I am off now and finished with your troll-business here.  To me it makes no more sense to me trying to understand what your problem might be like. Airbnb is definitely not the one to be adressed.

Best

Martin